Some Democrats want to make it against the law to be mean on the Internet. And "mean" is defined so broadly it could be just about anything not nice (links original):
The Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act would make it a felony punishable by up to two years in prison to transmit an electronic communication ("including email, instant messaging, blogs, websites, telephones, and text messages") "with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person...to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior."
Which, according to some covers a whole range of things:
UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh suggests half a dozen situations that could be covered by this law, all involving protected speech, including online criticism of politicians, angry demands for refunds from manufacturers of shoddy goods, calls for boycotts, and hostile messages to an ex-boyfriend. "The examples could be multiplied pretty much indefinitely," he writes at The Volokh Conspiracy. "The law, if enacted, would clearly be facially overbroad (and probably unconstitutionally vague), and would thus be struck down on its face under the First Amendment."
So, we're all cyberbullies now. This is typical. If you don't remember Megan Meier she was the teenager who committed suicide due to a MySpace hoax perpetrated by the parent of another girl. Now Democrats want to limit liberty in the name of protecting the children, and as usual, they hit the wrong target.
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